THE 'ETHNIC' COMPOSITION OF MACAO

Much has been written about the rich history of the City of Macao, however, little attention has been given to its equally fascinating present. Under the spell of our daily interests, immersed in a social context in which challenges are constant, and in which social change takes place right under our eyes, it is more comfortable to look to the past rather than to the present. But, in history, those who do not speak are forgotten.

It is urgent to come to know better the Macao which, in the two last decades, appeared under our eyes as a new City. The present text is a brief introduction to the question of Macao's contemporary 'ethnic' complexity based upon the more substantial work presented in Em Terra de Tufões: Dinâmicas da Etnicidade Macaense. 1

§1. WHAT DO SOCIAL SCIENTISTS UNDERSTAND TO BE 'ETHNICITY'

Both in the West and East, modem urban societies are characteristically composed of people with different origins, different family pasts, different Languages, different religions, etc. The notion of 'ethnic identity' is the answer to this diversity. In fact, this is an extremely heterogenic phenomenon, its only common basis being the social construction of an origin which works as a field of action for life in community. One of the things that defines it is not depending on forms of association based on strictly economical interests. On the contrary, 'ethnic identity' depends of the insertion of the person in a complex historical process, and it is usually acquired as a part of the primary solidarity acquired in the family.

Therefore, when we speak of an 'ethnicity', we bear in mind the identification of particular cultures, such as ways of life or of identity, which are based on a historical notion of origin or common destiny, mythical or 'real'.

Being as it is a relational phenomenon, 'ethnic identity' is not necessarily unitary. There may be 'ethnic identities' inside ‘ethnic identities', creating phenomena of ‘ethnic' subdivision (see, for instance, the famous study of E. Honig on ‘ethnicity' in Shanghai). In the words of Abner Cohen:

"[...] in modem society 'ethnicity' is the result of the intense interaction of different cultural groups, and not the result of any tendency to separation."

§2. THE HISTORIC SPECIFICITY OF MACAO

The City of Macao has unique characteristics which give it a great specificity, namely at the level of its 'ethnic' composition. In fact, the subjects of the King of Portugal who settled in Macao in the second half of the sixteenth century were already a quite complex population, which integrated elements of the most diverse peoples of all the South Asian Seas region — Malays, Japanese, Indian, Timorese and even African, as is shown by the historic Portuguese, Chinese and Korean sources. Thus was formed the Christian Portuguese-speaking society of Macao. As centuries went by, a population was created there with a culture which, although essentially Portuguese, had specifically local characteristics: the Macanese, known in Guangdongnese by the expression to2 saang1 [t'ou-s'ang] (pop.: born in the land; meaning: sons and daughters of the soil). **

What happened was the creation of that which social scientists call 'a Creole culture' —with its own way of speaking (the patoá), its way of dressing, its culinary and its Institutions. Among these, the Leal Senado (Loyal Senate), is undoubtedly, the most important. Until the last century, the interference of the Portuguese State over this local population of subjects of the King of Portugal was always relatively tenuous.

Macao was a Portuguese citadel. In principle, the subjects of the Emperor of China did not participate in the 'life' of the citadel. They were governed by Magistrates subject to Imperial Legislation. In terms of Administration, they did not belong to Macao, because, of the Chinese Administration, Macao did not have an autonomous existence, being part of the District of Zhongshan (nowadays Jungsan). Besides, the historical meaning, 'ethnically' restricted, of the word: Macanese, is based on the following characteristic: the Chinese, who technically lived outside the City walls, did not consider themselves as members of the Christian citadel which Macao was. Therefore, even today, it is usual to hear Chinese people saying that they live in O3 Moon4 Caai1 (lit.: the road of Macao).

This system, which the historian Kai Cheong Fok calls the "Macao Formula", was established in the second half of the sixteenth century. At the time, it depended of a highly ambivalent negotiation, but eventually it lasted for centuries:

“The commercial relations [...] became possible through the complicity of the Provincial Magistrates. The exchange was voluntary. Its survival depended as much on the good will of the Portuguese, who respected their obligations towards the local Magistrates, as of the acceptance on the side of the Chinese Magistrates of the risk of being reproached by Beijing. In realistic terms, it depended on knowing if both sides had strong enough necessity of the profits to take from the exchange. But, to work, the formula depended above all on the good will and tranquillity of the Portuguese in Macao."

Therefore, to understand Macao, we must understand the history of this negotiated separation between the Chinese population which lived in the City, as essentially indistinguishable as it may be from the rest of the population of the Chinese Empire, and a local Creole population (to2 saang1) which, however, we can distinguish from the rest of the Empire by two differentiating characteristic:

1. Being subjects of the King of Portugal, and

2. Being Christian.

This population integrated members of non-Portuguese groups essentially through two processes:

1. Marriage (or concubinage), and

2. Conversion.

In what concerns the first case, it seems that something which characterised the inter-'ethnic' sexual relations in all the Portuguese overseas contexts was the easiness with which the Portuguese adopted the fruits of their relations with women of other societies —even when those relations were temporary or were not submitted to the dignity of Christian religious marriage.

The opposite situation was characteristic of the Anglo-Saxonic communities —hence the clear difference between the 'ethnic' situations of Hong Kong and Macao. As an old Macanese said:

—“A Portuguese half-blood is called Portuguese. An English mestizo is just called a half-cast."

The English of Hong Kong were not ready to accept their biological children of a Chinese mother as their full right children. Thus, in Hong Kong, until the Seventies, it was a usual practice to distinguish between Europeans, Eurasians and Portuguese —these last were almost all from Macao and, in consequence, a result of several centuries of blood-crossing.

A second way through which Portuguese society integrated people of different 'ethnic' origins was through conversion to Christianity — particularly with those who from very young ages were educated as Portuguese. Until 1841, the Government of the Qing Dinasty prohibited any Chinese to convert to Christianity. Hence, until then, all the Chinese who would convert, would loose the Chinese 'ethnic identity', cutting the queue (symbolising the separation with Qing Dynasty), wearing Western clothes, adopting a Portuguese name and being integrated one way or the other into the Portuguese-speaking community.

To the Chinese population, this option was considered as a profound treason, not only to Chinese 'ethnicity' as such, but especially to the ancestors of that particular person — which, at the eyes of Confucian tradition was even more revolting.

The Parish of São Lázaro (St. Lazarus) was founded in 1846, precisely with the intention of answering to the demands of the growing numbers of Chinese Christians, who started to appear when the Government of the Qing Dynasty, as a result of the Opium Wars, began to allow the conversion of people of Chinese 'ethnicity' to Christianity, without loosing their 'ethnic' reference.

Nevertheless, the Confucian prejudice against the Christians — a result of the fact that the Christian Church did not allow the converts to keep their rituals of ancestral reverence — was, up until recently, surprisingly strong. The positions of the Church changed in the Sixties, but also the feeling of shame associated with it was diluted, now that so many urbanised Chinese no longer perform systematically those practices.

§3. THE 'ETHNIC' COMPOSITION OF MACAO — GREATER 'ETHNIC' CATEGORIES

At its most general level, social life in Macao tends to be structured around two Linguistic 'universes': the Guangdongnese and the Portuguese. Each of these 'universes' has its own means of social communication; its educational system; its specific forms of sociability. Although corresponding to to a certain feeling of personal identification, we shall not treat these 'universes' as 'ethnic' communities, even because the same person has, frequently, access to more than one.

There are three main 'ethnic categories' in Macao which have a long history in the Territory: 3.1. The Portuguese, 3.2. The Macanese, and 3.3. The Chinese. However, the relationships between these groups are not of the same kind and the groups themselves are internally structured in different ways. 3.1. THE PORTUGUESE IN MACAO The Portuguese who have established their lives in Macao in the period prior to the great social and political change of the middle of the Seventies, are in the majority, integrated in the social networks of the Macanese. Those who arrived afterwards, and particularly those who were called to the Territory to integrate the growth of the Administrative system which took place in the second half of the Eighties, tend to differentiate from the Macanese. The majority of these people spend only a few years in Macao. Some of them, however, create ties in the Territory, settling on a permanent basis. In this last case, we refer generally to those with liberal professions who marry with Macanese or Chinese from Macao. It is still too early to judge the 'ethnic identity' options of their children. The experience of the past would show that, in the cases in which the children stay in Macao, they end up integrating in the Macanese social life. 3.2. THE MACANESE It is not possible to know how many inhabitants of Macao consider themselves Macanese. In the first place, because there is a real shortage of statistical information and, in the second place, because the very nature of the Macanese as a group which occupies an intermediary place between the Chinese majority and the Portuguese Administrative minority, brings about an important number of situations of uncertain definition. An estimation based on a study of the Territory's Administration suggests that the current number of persons integrated in the Macanese ‘ethnic' community into the Territory is something between six and seven-thousand. It is important to insist on the fact that there are numerous Macanese in Hong Kong, as well as scattered all over the World. It is very likely that, at this moment, the number of people who had their origin in this community and are now living abroad is equal or even superior to those living in the Territory. This scattering must not be interpreted as a recent phenomenon or as an answer to the forthcoming political changes. Perhaps the best way to characterise the main terms of their self-identification is to quote how a Macanese presented the question during an interview: "Fundamentally, being Macanese is to be a native of Macao, but in order to interpret this community, the word includes everyone who is born in Macao and has a Portuguese culture. [...]. The Macanese are somewhat difficult. What is certain is that, to find a clear definition, we know that someone is Macanese or not through certain signs, certain ways being, a way of speaking, of thinking, which fully identify him as a Macanese [...]. To be Macanese is, fundamentally, to be from Macao, to descend from Portuguese, but not necessarily to be a Sino-Portuguese descendant. The local community was born of the Portuguese man, [...] but the women were, at first, Goan, Siamese, Indo-Chinese, Malay who came in our ships to Macao — and, sporadically, Chinese. When the Portuguese settled in Macao they were ostracised by the Chinese. The Portuguese had their women, who came from outside, but they could not have contacts with Chinese women, except for fishing, the tancareiras (tanca boats' women) or the slaves. Only the lowest of Chinese classes had contacts with the Portuguese in the first centuries. But afterwards the strength of Christianization started to convince the Chinese to became Christians, those who were baptised with Portuguese names were ostracised by the Buddhist Chinese. So, they took shelter inside the Portuguese community and the children started to have a Portuguese education, without having a single drop of Portuguese blood." One of the most outstanding figure of the last Macanese generations. Photograph taken in the Seventies. Arquivo Histórico de Macau (Historical Archive of Macao), Macao.

During this research emerged three main lines of self-identification which are used by the sons and daughters of the soil to classify themselves, or others, as Macanese: the order in which these lines are presented here must not be seen as the expression of a relative importance:

1. One of these lines is Language and it concerns any kind of association of an individual or his family with Portuguese Language.

2. Another line is Religion and it includes any kind of individual or family identification with Christianism.

3. Finally, the third line is Miscegenation between Asian and European blood.

Each one of these lines may constitute the basis for the identification of a Macanese person, but all the three are not necessary for someone to identify himself/herself, or another, as Macanese. In other words, it is possible for an individual to be considered Macanese even without having one of the traces indicated by the mentioned lines.

For instance, there are today people in Macao, considered by all as Macanese, despite the fact that they are not the result of a miscegenation between Europeans and Asians, or others still, who being considered Macanese do not, however, have a good control of Portuguese. There is a certain element of personal choice in the belonging or not to this group since, on the other hand, could also be quoted the cases of people whose Euro-Asiatic past would indicate that they are Macanese but who, for reasons of personal nature, have chosen a Chinese identity or vice-versa.

It should be understood, however, that those peoples and families who have all the three mentioned traces and who, besides, reached a relatively educational and/or economical level — i. e.: the so-called 'traditional families' — constitute the nucleus of families around which the Macanese identity builds itself as a community.

As a result of an investigation undergone in the Territory, it became evident that a deep change in inter-'ethnic' relationships took place in the period between the so-called ‘1, 2, 3' incidents related to the Cultural Revolution (1966) and the Government of Almeida e Costa (1981-1986). That 'ethnical' re-positioning changed the dynamics of forces in the Territory and opened the way to a possibility of survival of the Macanese in a Chinese governed Macao after 1999.

To summarise, the essence of this change was the abandonment of exclusivist attitudes towards the Chinese and the adoption of attitudes of identitary distance towards the Portuguese from the People's Republic. At the same time, the speech of the Macanese élite changed. It was witnessed a progressive abandonment of the identitary value references to a Portuguese capital, and a new identitary ‘ethnic' speech which valued more a capital of intercultural communication appeared. This change was parallel to what is called, in sociological Language, ‘a convergence of class positions of two groups of distinct origins'.

We will now identify some of the aspects of this convergence. In the first place, in a comparable economical and educational level, there has been a growing tendency to find marriages between people of different 'ethnic' origins but with similar class status. Between 1975 and 1990, 64% of the Christian marriages which involved a betrothed Macanese were made with a Chinese. At the same time, the sex asymmetry which characterised inter- ‘ethnic' marriages in the former period has been disappearing. Between 1961 and 1964, in the Christian marriages involving a betrothed Chinese and a betrothed Macanese, the percentage in which the groom was Chinese was of 20%; between 1987 and 1990, however, the man is Chinese in 46% of the cases.

Also, both groups being equally subject to a consumer society, both reacted by a progressive integration in the 'universe' of Hong Kong controlled mass media. Today, the dominant cultural references both for the young Chinese and for the young Macanese, are transmitted by the British and Guandongnese speaking Television channels of Hong Kong.

In the third place, from a Linguistic point of view, there is a search for a 'common Language'. By this we do not mean that there is only one Language that but the worry with the existence of means linguistic intercommunication can be very clearly detected today. The youngest Macanese do not speak anymore the harsh Guangdongnese of the older, on the contrary, many of them are proud of their standard Guangdongnese and there is even a good number who is starting to learn how to write in traditional Chinese. Almost all the middle class Chinese, on the other hand, can speak the international English which allows their integration in the global culture channelled by the international mass media to which the Macanese have already adhered of since the middle by the last century. Finally, it has been noticeable, since 1987, a growing interest to learning Portuguese of the young Chinese who aspire to a position both in the public and private sectors.

These approach tendencies should not be, however, necessarily interpreted as a sign of a dissolution of the Macanese in the Chinese majority. The Macanese 'ethnic identity' is very much alive.

In the last three years of our century a re-negotiation of 'ethnic' relations in Macao will very likely take place. If there are political conditions for the Macanese (and also for the middle-class Chinese holders of foreign passports) to feel that their freedom and personal safety are not threatened, it is very likely that the Macanese will continue living in the City after 1999. Due to their ability for intercultural communication, these Macanese will have an important role to play— despite losing their privileged role in public service — if the Territory will remain, as in the last decades, a touristic and economic 'point of call'.

Left to right: Ondina, Rubye and Alberto Senna Fernandes.

Sons of the 3rd Count of Senna Fernandes, the surname of one of the most distinguished families of traditional Macanese aristocracy.

Photograph taken by Catela, in 1933.

R. de Senna Fernandes Collection, Macao.

3.3. THE CHINESE IN MACAO

Of all the Territory's communities, the least known in scientific terms is the majority one — the Han Chinese community. By Han Chinese, we understand the majority 'ethnic identity' in the People's Republic of China, considering the existence of other fifty-five minzu, (in Guangdongnese man4 juk6) 'ethnic identities'-cum-minorities legally recognised by the People's Republic of China.

It is a settled subject among socio-cultural anthropologists who have been working about China, that these minorities are not enough to encompass the real ‘ethnic' diversity of this extremely varied Country. Particularly, it is important to underline that, in contrast with the official Chinese speech, anthropologist have been discovering the existence of a considerable ‘ethnic' diversity inside the great Han group (be it considered ‘ethnic' or sub - ‘ethnic' which, in the last instance, is irrelevant).

Something which should also be taken into account, and is being stressed by the authorities who have been discussing these issues (among others, Albert Yee and Wang Gungwu), is that the Chinese 'ethnic identity' does not imply a National identity. For that, several factors must have contributed. Among others, the fact that the last Imperial Dynasty was Manchu and not Han Chinese, as well as, more recently, the existence of two Sovereign States fully acknowledged as Chinese: Taiwan and the People's Republic of China.

A dinner offered by the Chinese magnate Ko Ho Neng to Clark Gable, at the Central Hotel.

Left to right: Ko Ho Neng (second), Maria Antonieta Jorge (fifth), Clark Gable (sixth), 'Rubi' Senna Fernandes (seventh), Edite Jorge (eighth) and 'Netty' Lobo (ninth).

Photograph taken around 1950.

In fact, in the last centuries, the existence of strong Chinese communities in Diaspora should be understood in these terms. Both in the United States of America and in Singapore, we have been having vast proof of how the strong connection of the Chinese to their cultural and 'ethnic' tradition does not mean any particular adherence to the Chinese State and the élite which governs it.

In what concerns this matter, the Confucianist tradition should also be taken into account. As the authorities in this field insist, (as for instance: W. Theodore de Bary), the Far East is living, in our days, in a post-Confucianist condition, like the West is living in a post-Christian condition. Neither modernisation nor Communism were able to erase the traces of this cultural tradition. 2

One of the central aspects of the Confucianist tradition is the importance of filial mercy, namely as it is represented by agnatic (patrilinear) succession. The private cult of ancestors in domestic altars and, in the correspondent times of the year, cemeteries or rural tombs, is very much alive. Among the Chinese in Diaspora, and also among those who have changed residence inside the People's Republic of China, the visit to the ancestral villages where the tombs are located is still a common practice. 3 What this truly means is that, not through a clinging to the State, but through an individual clinging to the cult of ancestors the Chinese living outside China are, frequently, very attached to the place of origin which they left behind. There is the idea that no matter what happens, this origin can never be altered.

In Macao, there is no significant number of any of the minzu. Amongst the Han Chinese, however, the diversity is huge. It is structured according to several axis, especially:

Group photo of the Basto family.

Abílio Basto (°12th April 1913) and his wife Genoveva, with seven of their eight children.

Back row. Left to right (standing): Arnaldo (son), Alda (daughter), Alfredo Bosco (Albertina's husband) and Armando (son).

Frontrow. Left to right: Abílio(son). Dona Genoveva (mother), Arminda (daughter), Abílio (father), Albertina (daughter, with son João Bosco on her lap) and Áurea (daughter).

Photograph taken in 1938.

Ernesto Basto da Silva Collection, Macao.

1. The one of the origin,

2. The one of the Language, and

3. The one of the greater or lesser association with the Territory.

The oldest ‘ethnic' (or sub-‘ethnic') distinction is the one separating the inhabitants of the land from the Tanka boat people. These last constituted an important part of the Chinese population of Macao in the past because, as they lived in boats, they had a parasite-like connection with the Christian citadel.

The few studies which were made about them indicate that the Tanka continue to have, today in Macao, a self-differentiated 'ethnic identity', although they have in the majority left their marine dwellings, choosing to live in apartments in the City. This change, along with the growing scholarization of the children, means that there is a progressive indifferentiation in what concerns the rest of the population.

In the past, the Chinese population of Macao included a strong component of Fukianese (speakers of the Min Dialect, also known as Hokkien). However, with time they were integrated and the majority of the population started to come from the District of Zhongshan. Thus, the Language which was spoken in the streets of Macao until the middle of our century was, according to W. L. Woon, the predominant Dialect of that District: the Dialect Sek Kei (in Mandarin: Shiqi). More recently, however, and due to schooling and to the Hong Kong mass media, the standard Guangdongnese became the predominant Language.

Still according to the same author, the Chinese population of Macao would be in its majority constituted of people of the rural areas of Guangdong (one third of it being from Zhongshan). There should be also a small minority from Fujien and two other even smaller groups of people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This information, albeit, can not be in any way taken as definitive.

In our days, the main difference among the Chinese which are present in the Territory —that which has a deeper impact in the forms of sociability and on the feelings of personal identity —is connected with the ‘belonging or not to the Territory'. The central category in relation to which all others differentiate is the one of local people (in Guangdongnese; boon2 dei6 ian4). This category is not exclusive. 4 It tends to include everyone who manages to adopt the ways of life and expression characterist of the City (it requires the speaking of Guangdongnese with the local accent). It is not so much birth that counts, but the fact of having completed basic schooling in Macao, particularly if the person has a middle class profile.

There is no doubt that these people are Chinese and feel strongly bound to that ‘ethnic identity', to their personal family tradition, to their education, to the freedom of religion and speech to which they are used. Their relative cosmopolitanism, the fact that they speak English (or, although much less, Portuguese), and the freedom of travelling, give way to strong feelings of differentiation vis - à - vis with Chinese of the People's Republic of China. An important number of them are Portuguese citizens since birth or are children of Portuguese citizens. It must also be taken into account the socio-political fact that these people and their families did not have any experiences of violent cultural manipulation associated to the Chinese Communist regime, particularly during the Cultural Revolution.

According to all the economic forecasts, the future prosperity of Macao cannot be based on cheap labour. In consequence, the social-educational capital and the financial capital that these residents of Macao have, are a fundamental condition for the continuation of the economic growth during the first decades of the twenty-first century.

Many of these Chinese of Macao [Ou-Mun-ian] which hold a Portuguese passport, or have obtained a foreign passport (usually from an English speaking Country) are ready to change residence if the social and political conditions in the Territory are not satisfactory. However, the feeling of attachment to local life, and the knowledge they have of how much they would benefit if they could stay in their land, means that it is normal for these people to become ‘astronauts' — this is the word used in local slang, as well as among the Chinese abroad, to define those who, having formally emigrated with their families, still have a strong economical bond with Hong Kong or Macao.

Three other categories of people differentiate from this group; people whose presence in the Territory is less marked.

1. In the first place, the ‘poor' emigrants from the Province of Guangdong who, through more or less clandestine methods, managed to settle in the City during the Eighties. The feeling of differentiation towards these people shows some classical aspects —since it is frequent to find people with rural habits and accent and also with a much lower buying power than the population which has been established for a longer time. They are called, in a depreciative way, Ah Chaan [ah t'chan]. As the investigation undergone by Wang Yau Kwan demonstrates, many of these people have kinship ties with the older inhabitants of Macao. However, the mentioned study shows that these ties tend not to correspond to active systems of mutual help.

2. In the second place, there are the Chinese who have returned from the Diaspora (and particularly, from Southeast Asian Countries —known in Guangdongnese as the Naam4 Yeung4). The majority of these came to Macao in the Sixties, in a time when the situation of the Chinese in these recently independent Countries had become very difficult. Today the majority of them speak Guangdongnese. It is a very differentiated group, but its relationship with the locals does not involve as much tension as with the other two. They are people with a middle class profile and, frequently, even with education levels above the average.

3. In the third place, we have the Chinese from the North, speakers of Mandarin. During the period immediately before the declaration of the People's Republic of China (1949) many came to Hong Kong and Macao. After the last years of the Eighties, the number, nevertheless, grew considerably. Less numerous, with relatively high socio-educational levels, ignorant of Guangdongnese and not always sympathetic to the Guangdongnese culture and habits, it is very usual to feel a certain animosity of the residents in Macao towards them.

To understand the form how these feelings of identitary differentiation are integrated in terms of structures of collective action it is important to mention, although very briefly, the élites which give coherence to these groups. We may briefly describe the Chinese élite as integrating people of three rather different origins.

1. In the first place, the Chinese of Macao; resident in the Territory for more than two generations and having solid personal fortunes based on commerce. Among them, the older, probably constitute the strongest force in Macao. Their options tend to be very conservative, which, taking into account the peculiar history of Macao, means that, on the one hand, they are more involved in the alliance with the People's Republic of China initiated in the period which led to the ‘1, 2, 3' but, on the other hand, that they are also influential in the world of business and in the world of secret societies. The young tend to have Western education (in general, in English speaking Countries) with personal and political attitudes more liberal than those of their parents and whose fortune is essentially based on industry.

2. In the second place, we have those who came from the People's Republic of China after 1979. Among these we find two élite profiles:

2.1. The nouveaux riches, whose recent personal fortune is generally connected to more or less clandestine activities, and

2.2. The intellectuals who escaped from the repressive atmosphere of China.

Few of them have emerged has opinion makers, since they do not feel identified with the Portuguese presence and do not feel able to sustain an alliance with a regime which forced them to emigrate. Among them, there is a powerful political apathy for they are willing to re-emigrated.

3. In the third place, among the contingent of Chinese from Southeast Asian Countries, there are some outstanding financial or intellectual figures who have been taking an independent public position.

3.4. OTHER ‘ETHNIC GROUPS'

There are still other ‘ethnic groups' which, although not playing a central role in the political and economical dynamics of the Territory, have long been present in Macao: the Indian, the Pakistanis, the Thai, the Timorese, the Filipinos. The presence of these people tends to have less visibility, even because their stay in the City is, generally, short. However, in the case of the Indians and Pakistanis there are families which have already been established in Macao for a long time, having even, in some cases, lost their original Nationality.

Translated from the Portuguese by: Rui Cascais Parada

NOTES

1 CABRAL, João de Pina - MARQUES, Nelson, Em Terra de Tufões: Dinâmicas da Etnicidade Macaense, Macau, Instituto Cultural de Macau, 1993.

2 As a religion organised around the public cult of ancestors in the times of the clan, Confucianism has already lost much of its meaning. But, as a cultural backdrop for a whole way of life it still enjoys a central influence. We should note that, even in the People's Republic of China, the anthropologists who have been making field research during the last decade, all agree on this subject.

3 This cult is associated with notions of prosperity caused by the fengshui and it is easy to find references to its daily importance in the life of the people of Hong Kong and Macao.

4 Incidentally, this category also includes the to2 saang1, the Macanese.

**Translator's note: The reader's attention is drawn to the fact that the author uses a criteria of transliteration of Guangdongnese [Cantonese] different from the traditional, with the help of numbers to indicate the tones. Two examples: to2 saang1 is, in the traditional transliteration, tou sang, and boon2 dei6 ian4, is, in the traditional transliteration pun tei iân.

* Ph. D in Social Anthropology (Oxford). Associate Professor at the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho (Lisbon). Researcher at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences), Lisbon.